NEW YORK (Reuters) - The late-December surge that pushed
enrollment in private health insurance plans under Obamacare
past 2.1 million people continued into 2014, officials of
several state-run insurance marketplaces said on Wednesday.

It was encouraging news for White House hopes of signing up
7 million Americans by March 31, the deadline for 2014 coverage
under President Barack Obama's healthcare law.

That goal has appeared elusive due to the disastrous
performance of HealthCare.gov, the federal enrollment portal
through which Americans in 36 states sign up to buy health
insurance, in October and November, even as the websites of many
of the 15 state-run exchanges fared better.

The Washington Health Benefit Exchange has had about 8,000
enrollments in private health plans since late December,
bringing the total to just over 73,000. "We doubled our
call-center staff in December" to handle the end-of-year surge,
said Richard K. Onizuka, chief executive of the exchange, in a
conference call arranged by the nonprofit healthcare advocacy
group Families USA. "And now we're almost doubling it again."

The deadline is Wednesday for coverage that starts on
February 1. For coverage that begins on March 1, consumers must
enroll by Feb. 15. Those who do not have insurance must enroll
by March 31 or incur a tax penalty.

Kentucky, whose Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear has been an
enthusiastic supporter of Obama's Affordable Care Act, has been
logging about 2,000 simultaneous users on its website in
January, said Carrie Banahan, executive director of the Kentucky
Health Benefit Exchange. That compares with 600 before the
December surge, when "Kynect" topped 33,000 enrollments in
private health insurance. Banahan did not release January
enrollment figures.

Connecticut enrolled about 36,000 people in private health
plans through late December, spokeswoman Kathleen Tallarita
said. Since then it has enrolled "in some cases, 500 to 1,000 in
a week," which would put it behind 2013's pace. The state will
release January enrollment figures on Thursday.

New York also "is seeing an increase in call volume as we
approach today's deadline," said Danielle Hollihan, deputy
director of New York State of Health, referring to the Jan. 15
cut-off for coverage beginning Feb. 1. New York has been
enrolling about 7,000 people per day in private plans and
Medicaid in January, she said, compared with a total of about
230,000 from Oct. 1 through late December.

California, whose 500,000 private-plan enrollments through
December lead all states, has not released January numbers, but
said it continued "to see a tremendous amount of interest."

Data on sign-up activity for HealthCare.gov in the last two
weeks was not available.

Virtually every state is trying to pump up enrollment by
young adults, since those aged 18 to 34 so far account for only
24 percent of enrollees nationwide, the Obama administration
announced on Monday.

The program needs a higher proportion of younger members,
who tend to be healthier and, therefore, less likely to need the
costliest medical care, to offset expenses for sicker
beneficiaries.

On Thursday, Covered California will hold a six-hour
extravaganza at YouTube studios in Los Angeles, with a live
broadcast of what it calls "a range of viral entertainment
geared toward millennials about the importance of getting
covered."